Saturday, April 11, 2015

RE-FOCUSING OUR FOCUS IN ORDER TO GET OUR EYES UN-CROSSED

OUR FAVORITE SMALL LAKE STOPPING SPOT IS STILL SHEDDING IT’S ICE

Cold but sunny start to our day & how nice to see all the ice & snow finally melted off our pine forest trail first thing this morning. Sure makes for much easier walking. Knew it would be awhile before the day warmed up so figured it was a good time for Pheebs & I to crack on the Jeep’s heater & slip ourselves on up to Goderich for a few things then take a few country roads home. We split a Burrito at McDonalds before heading out of town.

Countryside is still looking a little bleak but with today’s warming sun & nice big fluffy white clouds setting off a deep blue sky it was nice to be outside with some scenery going by. Because of icy winds we only made one brief stop for a few hasty Goose pics. We were home before noon.

PADDLING PAST AN ICE PATCH & MOVING ALONG IN STEALTH MODE

With temperatures slowly rising by early afternoon I was able to work away at removing ice from our back gate & it is now finally open for the season. That open gate enabled me to get our wheelbarrow into our backyard whereupon I commenced the back yard clean-up. Also took Jeepers back seat out & replaced it with our normal summer wooden platform configuration with Pheebs bed on top. We are slowly working our way towards our summer set-up. Maybe tomorrow I will start hauling out some lawn furniture & figurines. Well that’s if it doesn’t snow of course.

And hey by golly it looks like after 7 months Annie and the Furballs have returned to the great American South-west. Might want to drop on over to Annie’s place & see what she’s been up to & how she felt about having just spent her whole winter in Wisconsin………..

Another fair chunk of our day was spent on-line looking at vehicles & our focus shifted away for a bit from 4 door mid size trucks to something else. Been looking at some Jeep Liberties & a whole lot of Ford Escapes. Many favorable reviews on the Escapes & we noticed the prices are far more reasonable on 4x4 SUV’s than the trucks but then I saw a Ford Explorer 4x4 mid size truck that really caught my eye. We have both looked at so many 4-wheelers lately & read so many vehicle reviews today we’ll have to find an Ophthalmologist who makes house calls & have him/her come to the house, un-cross our eyes, & somehow get us back in focus again. As if we were ever focused in the first place eh…………………………

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A pipe burst in a doctor's house. He called a plumber. The plumber arrived, unpacked his tools, did mysterious plumber-type things for a while, and handed the doctor a bill for $600. The doctor exclaimed, "This is ridiculous! I don't even make that much as a doctor!" The plumber waited for him to finish and quietly said, "Neither did I when I was a doctor."

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Two intrepid explorers met in the heart of the Brazilian jungle. "I'm here," declared one, "to commune with nature in the raw, to contemplate the eternal verities and to widen my horizons. And you, sir?" "I," sighed the second explorer, "came because my young daughter has begun violin lessons."

8 comments:

Read the Liberty's reviews.... I kinda stayed away from them... Also no room for your left foot on the floor board.... We had an escape for several years and it was an OK vehicle... But it isn't much of a gas mileage getter...

My good friend Shirley has an Escape and that is the MOST uncomfortable car I've ever ridden in--even more uncomfortable than our jeep! When I traveled for work for some reason my rental car was often an Escape--again, very uncomfortable! Mike and I have had two Explorers--very, very comfortable. We've heard first hand that towing jeep Liberty's is not a good idea. We did tow our Explorer with a dealer added neutral kit for the transfer case--don't know if you can do this with newer models??

Loved my Explorer but sold it when went fulltiming...now tow an Escape and we like the car....but burned up the transmission with only 800 miles on the new 2012 car. Some people have had absolutely no problems towing an Escape, but there are many that have lost transmissions while towing, so be aware. We now have a Remco lube pump to enable towing the Escape and Ford no longer considers them towable.

Years ago I had a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee, and it was my all time favorite car. They quit making that version and I didn't find many good reviews on the later models or on the Ford Escape, for that matter. By then I wasn't looking for 4WD or anticipating anything more than an occasional drive on a gravel road.

Your search is exactly the one we made, with the same vehicles on the list. You won't fit comfortably in a Liberty - Bill's knees hit the steering wheel, and head bumped the ceiling. The Explorer Sport little pick up I had for a couple years was a hoot to drive, but have no idea how it tows. Our friends tow an Escape Hybrid automatic four down and love it. I think it's a 2009. We still think our 2007 Cherokee is ideal. Nice to see the countryside thawing out :-)

I had a 2001 Ford Escape 4 WD and drove it until I hit the road in 2011, when I sold it to my son. He finally sold it to an employee last year. It was still a beautiful car (I think) and had no issues. I loved it. It was a kind of silver/champagne color and didn't show the dirt - perfect! I was living in the foothills of the Sierras when I got it, put on snow tires, and never had a problem getting to town in the snow. Of course, it was never towed.

I had to laugh at you getting out the summer things - if it doesn't snow. LOL :)

Al and Kelly, just make sure whatever you buy works for BOTH of you! :-) I have a Honda CRV and hubby has a Nissan XTerra. His car is difficult for me to climb into and I'm usually the driver while he navigates. HE says my Honda is too little for him! Go figure!Take care!Cheryl Ann~~In the low 90's here next week, even the 80's, so it will be delightful!

AL'S CAMERA EQUIPMENT

A sometimes asked question readers have about my blog is what kind of a camera do I use. Well I have 8 of them and use them all. Five Nikon DSLR's, two quality Sony point and shoots plus one older Canon point and shoot.

'UPDATE':: July 2017 Thanks to a very generous blog reader I have been able to update my Nikon camera equipment and supplement my camera gear with a couple additional fine Sony cameras as well.I now have a 'donated' Nikon D7200 sporting my new Nikkor 18-300 3.5 zoom lens. Also have picked up a new Nikkor 1.8 primary 35mm lens. In addition I also now have a Sony RX100-3 camera as well as a Sony Exmore Cybershot. I have given my Canon Powershot point and shoot camera to a neighbor.

- In early 2017 I replaced my Nikon D-90 camera with a new D-3400 after the 'auto focus' feature on my aging D-90 quit working. The Nikon D-90 had been my work horse camera sporting a Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6 lens. I used this camera for most of my landscapes and I now have it set up for night photography where 'auto focus' is not necessary.

-My older faithful and favorite Nikon D-40 finally packed it in during the summer of 2015 and I replaced it with a new Nikon D-3100.

- Previous to my Nikon D-90, most of my photos were taken with my old faithful Nikon D-50 from 2006 to early 2011 whereupon the D-50 suffered a rather gruesome death when it fell off a table onto a cement porch in southeastern Arizona. The 70-300mm lens on the camera survived the fall but the D-50 did not. My Nikkor lenses are interchangable between the D-90 the D-3100 and the D-3400.